2019 Americas Rugby Championship

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Uruguay vs Canada highlights

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Don't know anything about his coaching record in Argentina but and his arrival at Leinster has coincided with a vast increase in the quality of inside centre play here. Our backup outhalves are generally showing a bit more as well. He deserves obvious credit for that anyway.

Yeah, I was being a wee bit tongue in cheek. Leinster's is where struggling coaches go to excel. Lancaster, Contepomi... could you take Connor OShea? Please..

 

[Leinster Fan]

Yeah, I was being a wee bit tongue in cheek. Leinster's is where struggling coaches go to excel. Lancaster, Contepomi... could you take Connor OShea? Please..

I know you're joking but I honestly would be fairly happy if Connor O'Shea was announced as part of our coaching team tomorrow.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

This weekend

Uruguay vs Chile (should be very one sided) - Uruguay by 27

Argentina XV vs USA (almost certainly the ***le decider and should have some quality) - US by 3

Brazil vs Canada (worth checking to see if there is a continued power shift in the Americas or if we should have more realism about the speed of improvement that is possible in Brazil) - Canada by 6

Streamed by World Rugby on YouTube as usual.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Uruguay 20-5 Chile

Chile put in a decent shift and a great celebration of the try for the young hooker. Probably indicates a lack of depth in the wider Uruguayan squad as there was little sign of the fluidity they showed in 2018.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

21-0 for Arg and red card for the US, 30 min.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Doesn't a game like this merit an impartial ref?

He just yellow carded the wrong argentine.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I've been dipping in briefly. When did the US get the red card? Scoreline of 40-0 is hard to get my head around. Could the heat be a factor?

Or, can we just crown Lobbe as a god of coaching already?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Brazil 18 - 10 Canada

A changing of the guard in the Americas? Canada may be the worst side to go to a RWC in the professional era, particularly with DTH out for the season. Brazil seem to have massively upgraded their pack but their best backs are either ageing, out of form or simply not being allowed the ball in typical wet Brazilian conditions. This win was solely about their scrum dominance (never thought I'd ever type that). The Argentina XV result today puts their drubbing of Brazil last week into perspective. I think Brazil might even give Uruguay a contest if Uruguay dont have their MLR players.

 

[die_mole]

Really hope that mlr teams look to bring some more South Americans in. We have a good amount of Uruguayans but wouldn't like to see a fair amount of Brazilians move here. Chile even has one or two.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Canada vs Chile
Argentina XV vs Uruguay
USA vs Brazil

The better side at home means even I won't pay the competition any attention this weekend. I'll be amazed if we aren't looking at three cricket scores.

 

[petite]

Canada vs Chile
Argentina XV vs Uruguay
USA vs Brazil

The better side at home means even I won't pay the competition any attention this weekend. I'll be amazed if we aren't looking at three cricket scores.

dont think we are going to score so many points against uruguay. i do expect a win but the difference wont be so big +25 points imo
i would love to se brazil beat usa, chile is hopeless

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

dont think we are going to score so many points against uruguay. i do expect a win but the difference wont be so big +25 points imo
i would love to se brazil beat usa, chile is hopeless

Impressive foresight petite. Uruguay were under strength and Argentina XV were smashing everything in sight in earlier games, but Uruguay kept things respectable (36-10 I think).

US vs Brazil was a 60 point thriller that went down to the wire. The two main points from it were:

- Brazil's bizarrely improved pack is a real thing (a miracle!) - they could have finished an incredible second in this tournament.
- US look like they are gradually undoing the good work of John Mitchell - hard to believe they defeated Scotland last year.

Anyway, very happy to see the ARC having a little less predictability than I expected.

 

[die_mole]

Impressive foresight petite. Uruguay were under strength and Argentina XV were smashing everything in sight in earlier games, but Uruguay kept things respectable (36-10 I think).

US vs Brazil was a 60 point thriller that went down to the wire. The two main points from it were:

- Brazil's bizarrely improved pack is a real thing (a miracle!) - they could have finished an incredible second in this tournament.
- US look like they are gradually undoing the good work of John Mitchell - hard to believe they defeated Scotland last year.

Anyway, very happy to see the ARC having a little less predictability than I expected.

AJ didn't play yesterday so we were back to be being an average tier 2 side, with him we are just outside tier 1

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

This weekend the pick of the bunch is US vs Uruguay. Uruguay will have their MLR players back and the US seems to be entering a dip in form.

Other fixtures are:

Brazil vs Chile (Chile could do with a remotely competitive performance)

Canada vs Argentina XV (can Canada show anything at all following their smashing of Chile?)

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Argentina XV clinch the ***le in Canada. Canada show a little bit of backbone thankfully.



I'm quite sure what the thinking is behind Argentina playing an experienced scrum half like Ezcurra.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Child almost backed upped their draw with the Blitz Boks in 7s with a win in Brazil, but fell short of what would likely have been a winning try by a centimetre.

Woeful from Brazil other than their scrum. Conditions looked good, but their ball handling and general attacking is going backwards in my opinion.

15-10 for Brazil, with all points from the tee.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Uruguay win with a skilled and disciplined performance in the US and move up to 16th. They have now defeated the US and Romania away from home in recent months and are not far off the ranking or level of a Samoa, Tonga or dare I say Italy. They've had a great couple of years of progression and their half backs in particular seem to have real quality. Their pack has also strengthened significantly to compete in fixtures like these.

I know AJ McGinty is a loss, but it's not like he is Beauden Barret. US hooker Joe T breaks the world record for tries by a hooker with a brace here. Record previously held by Keith Wood.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Final week:

USA vs Canada (US nerves might turn to full blown panic if they lose back to back at home. Canada really took heart from their performance last weekend, so this might be worth catching)

Chile vs Argentina XV (best vs worst, bleurgh)

Uruguay vs Brazil (a win for Uruguay sees them hold onto their record ranking of 16th and get their best ever ARC finish of 2nd. Itd also means Brazil finish a disappointing 5th. Show me some back play Brazil!)

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

US vs Canada highlights. Went right down to the wire.



Canada showing some physicality and passion in these past two matches that has sadly been missing in recent years. Maybe they aren't certainties for the bottom of their RWC pool after all.

Brazil put up a more spirited performance against Uruguay before shipping a couple of late tries. Uruguay finish second overall, with Argentina XV champions. Less predictable than I was anticipating, which is always a good thing.